Is it you? letting dinoflagellates prevail

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sixty_reefer

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That would make sense give. How I defeated them the first time... Dosed NeoNitro and NeoPhos to get the levels above zero and then 3 day blackout.

This second time I was thinking to myself about the blackout... Is there any place in the ocean that never gets shaded? Is our synthetic environment that never goes dark during a light period part of the greater problem. :Shrug: just a thought I had.
Raising nutrients is probably the best thing to to in most cases. I believe that in the ocean they will have natural predators to control them
 

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Now I'm thoroughly confused What I have experienced is when I run a some what dirty tank I have fewer algae's and when I clean it up I have a problem with the, red algae and green. When I run with elevated phosphate and nitrate, I have fewer.
I have been adding live phyto. According to your theory I have been adding to much, will have to cut back. Enjoyed your information and the comments.
 

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Hi can you tell me about the reactor? I have been fighting Dino’s for a while and dosing phytoplankton with no luck. Does the reactor feed into the DT? And you addding dried phytoplankton to the reactor correct?
 

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@sixty_reefer did you test to ensure that what you had was indeed dinos?

The picture is kind of hard to tell but it doesn't to me look as though it is dinos.

I had dinos years about 5 years ago. It was pretty bad. I got it from a store. I left it alone and it slowly diminished. It has never gone away. I can not 100% sure that what I have is dinos because I didn't get it under a microscope. It did have all the classic signs, stringy snot like apperance. Lots of bubbles trapped in it and outgassing into the tank.

I dose large amounts of phyto today and have been for about a year. I also dose nitrate pretty heavily. I have very low nitrate, essentially zero, and low phosphate. I can not raise the values for any length of time. The dinos are still in the tank they still persist, but as they have always been they are balanced and not overtaking the tank.

I am skeptical of your theory about dosing phyto.

My 2 cents.
 
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@sixty_reefer did you test to ensure that what you had was indeed dinos?

The picture is kind of hard to tell but it doesn't to me look as though it is dinos.

I had dinos years about 5 years ago. It was pretty bad. I got it from a store. I left it alone and it slowly diminished. It has never gone away. I can not 100% sure that what I have is dinos because I didn't get it under a microscope. It did have all the classic signs, stringy snot like apperance. Lots of bubbles trapped in it and outgassing into the tank.

I dose large amounts of phyto today and have been for about a year. I also dose nitrate pretty heavily. I have very low nitrate, essentially zero, and low phosphate. I can not raise the values for any length of time. The dinos are still in the tank they still persist, but as they have always been they are balanced and not overtaking the tank.

I am skeptical of your theory about dosing phyto.

My 2 cents.
Have you got a picture of what you have, the description you telling me sounds like Lyngbya that is very similar to dinoflagellates, you won’t fully get rid of them until you can keep those nitrates up, have you considered dosing potassium nitrate or other source of no3? the one I had, I never looked under the microscope could most probably photosynthetic dinoflagellates as I never had an issue with no3 and po4 bottom out.
 

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Yup, taken just now. Note this is on a red macro algae. Hence the color.

JPEG image.jpeg


you won’t fully get rid of them until you can keep those nitrates up, have you considered dosing potassium nitrate or other source of no3?
Nitrates were higher in the past. Generally during the outbreak and 3-4 years afterword. Nitrates were 20-50 and phosphate was .3ish. Just like the dinos these also mellowed out.
 
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This ones look just normal dinoflagellates, they bloom if a tank has zero po4 or no3 for a long period of time, the best way to fight this one’s imo is:

1. stir the tank the max possible the keep them suspended and remove by filter sock (nylon) or filter floss.

Use plenty of GAC wile doing this part also

dinoflagellates are a micro algae, and the non photosynthetic will use nutrients in the water column, you want to remove the maximum possible using this method so that there will be enough nutrients available for you microbes to repopulate the areas lost by the dinoflagellates.

2. Keep persistent with no3 or po4 dosing, depending on which one is low, you will want it to be detectable for at list 6 consistent days.

3. dosing phytoplankton and live bacteria will be beneficial to speed up the process only if nutrients are able to keep above zero.

have you tried this yet?
 
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Hi can you tell me about the reactor? I have been fighting Dino’s for a while and dosing phytoplankton with no luck. Does the reactor feed into the DT? And you addding dried phytoplankton to the reactor correct?
Yes that’s correct, have you identified if yours are photosynthetic or non photosynthetic?
 

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have you tried this yet?
Yes, all of them.

My tank is very mature at 8 years. The dinos have been present from when the tank was 3 months old. The nitrates and phosphates have been high (by consensus standard) for extended periods. The nitrates and phosphates have been medium (by consensus standard) for extended periods. I have been dosing 30ml/day of Algae barn phyto if I can get it, if not that then I use the bottle stuff, but I dose less because it is more concentrated. I have been doing this for almost 3 years. I have no skimmer. My fish eat live white worms 98% of the time. I have also been dosing Magnesium Nitrate for 2 years and when I don't need Magnesium I dose Calcium Nitrate. The dinos wax and wane.

I don't really think that you can eradicate dinos. For me they are not a problem, just another form of life in my very diverse biome. The only time I get into trouble with them and, this is only with dinos, is when I scrape a lot of algae that they might be mixed with. Normally I would just let the algae float and get consumed by the tank, but dinos ensure I can't do this and I have to export to make sure that I don't spread the toxin. One other thing is that some herbivores especially new ones will get nuked if there is a large build up on the glass and they get too much.
 
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They are large cell.. can you post some pics of your reactor and how it is setup and how much plankton you add? Thx
All the info on the reactor is in this thread hope it helps

 

Caring for your picky eaters: What do you feed your finicky fish?

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